JP2020067607A - Image forming apparatus and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an image forming apparatus and a program that can repair hair crack that is generated due to a load on a brush roller rotating in contact with an image carrier.SOLUTION: An image forming apparatus comprises: a photoreceptor drum 41 that is rotated by a rotation shaft and carries a toner image to be transferred to a sheet; a brush roller 461 that has a rotation shaft parallel to the rotation shaft of the photoreceptor drum, rotates in contact with the photoreceptor drum during image formation, and supplies a lubricant to the photoreceptor drum and/or removes a toner on the photoreceptor drum; and a control unit 10 that functions as a detection unit that detects a load applied to a surface of the brush roller, and an execution unit that, when it is detected that a load in the direction of travel of the surface of the brush roller is applied to the surface, executes an operation to restore the falling direction of the bristles of the brush roller.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a program.

Conventionally, in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, residual toner adhered on the surface of an image carrier by sliding a cleaning blade or the like onto the surface of the image carrier such as a photosensitive drum on which a toner image is formed. There is known a technique for removing adhered substances such as.
Further, when cleaning the image bearing member with a cleaning blade or the like, a technique of applying a lubricant and attaching it to the image bearing member is used in order to reduce the adhesive force of the toner to the image bearing member and improve the cleaning performance. Has been.

To apply the lubricant, for example, a solid lubricant and a brush roller that rotates while contacting the surface of the image bearing member and the solid lubricant are used. The brush roller has a role of uniformly applying the lubricant scraped off from the solid lubricant to the surface of the image bearing member by rotating.
The brush roller has a function of cleaning the surface of the image bearing member by rubbing the surface of the image bearing member. As a result, the amount of residual toner that reaches the cleaning blade can be reduced, and the cleaning performance of the cleaning blade can be further improved.

The brush roller can rotate while the contact state with the image carrier is maintained by the bristles of the brush bristles falling toward the upstream side in the traveling direction of the brush roller surface rather than the root. However, depending on the usage of the image forming apparatus, the bristle collapse state may become non-uniform, and the rubbing force on the image carrier decreases at such a position, resulting in the toner removing power and the lubricant application. The strength will be uneven.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-242242 describes a problem that the brush roller is stopped for a long time while being in contact with the image carrier, resulting in uneven brushing of the brush roller, based on the rotation stop time of the brush roller. There is described a technique for executing an operation for recovering the hair falling state of.

JP, 2011-191524, A

By the way, when only the image carrier rotates while the brush roller stops rotating, if a rotational load is applied to the brush roller in the direction opposite to the direction of the brush roller's hair collapse, the contact of the image carrier will occur. So-called bristle cracking occurs, in which the brush bristles fall in the opposite direction.
In the invention described in Patent Document 1, the unevenness of hair collapse caused by the rotation stop time of the brush roller is suppressed, but the hair cracking caused by the load on the brush roller cannot be appropriately detected and repaired.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides an image forming apparatus and a program capable of repairing hair cracks caused by a load on a brush roller that rotates in contact with an image carrier. To aim.

In order to solve the above problems, the image forming apparatus according to claim 1,
An image carrier that carries a toner image that is rotated by a rotating shaft and transferred to a sheet,
It has a rotation axis parallel to the rotation axis of the image carrier, rotates while contacting the image carrier at the time of image formation, and supplies lubricant to the image carrier and / or on the image carrier. A brush roller for cleaning and removing toner,
A detection unit that detects the load applied to the surface of the brush roller,
An execution unit that executes a repairing operation in the hair collapse direction of the brush roller when the detection unit detects that a load is applied to the surface of the brush roller in the traveling direction of the surface. Characterize.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect,
The brush roller is preliminarily subjected to a slanting treatment in which the bristle tip is inclined with respect to the root toward the upstream side in the traveling direction of the surface of the brush roller.

According to a third aspect of the invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first or second aspect,
The execution unit may rotate the brush roller in the same direction as the image formation while the rotation of the image carrier is stopped as the repair operation.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first or second aspect,
The execution unit rotates the image carrier in a direction opposite to that at the time of image formation while the rotation of the brush roller is stopped as the repair operation.

According to a fifth aspect of the invention, in the image forming apparatus according to any one of the first to fourth aspects,
The detection unit detects that a load in the traveling direction is applied to the surface of the brush roller when the peripheral speed of the image carrier is higher than the peripheral speed of the brush roller.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to any one of the first to fifth aspects,
Whether the execution unit executes the restoration operation according to the usage status of the image forming apparatus, when the detection unit detects that the surface of the brush roller has a load in the traveling direction. It is characterized by determining whether or not.

According to a seventh aspect of the invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the sixth aspect,
The execution unit determines to suspend the execution of the restoration operation when the next image forming operation is reserved, and executes the restoration operation when the next image forming operation is not reserved. It is characterized by making a judgment.

The invention described in claim 8 is the image forming apparatus according to claim 7,
When the execution unit determines to suspend the execution of the restoration operation, when the next image forming operation is started, the execution unit determines not to execute the restoration operation, and the reservation for the next image forming operation is canceled. It is determined that the restoration operation is to be executed in the case of a failure.

The program according to claim 9,
An image carrier that carries a toner image that is rotated by a rotary shaft and transferred to a sheet, and a rotary shaft that is parallel to the rotary shaft of the image carrier, and rotate while contacting the image carrier during image formation. A brush roller that supplies a lubricant to the image carrier and / or cleans and removes toner on the image carrier, and a computer of an image forming apparatus,
A detection unit that detects the load applied to the surface of the brush roller,
When the detection unit detects that a load is applied to the surface of the brush roller in the traveling direction of the surface, it causes the brush roller to function as an execution unit that performs a repairing operation in the hair fall direction. Characterize.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus and a program capable of repairing hair cracks caused by a load on a brush roller that rotates in contact with an image carrier.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a main functional configuration of the image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows schematic structure of an image forming part. It is a figure explaining the generation | occurrence | production mechanism of a bristle crack, and a brush repair operation. 6 is a timing chart of the operation of each unit of the image forming unit. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the amount of rotations of a brush in a restoration operation, and density unevenness. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the image forming apparatus in the first embodiment. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the image forming apparatus in the brush repair operation. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the image forming apparatus in the second embodiment.

<First Embodiment>
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the embodiment of the present invention, a color image forming apparatus will be described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this and can be applied to, for example, a monochrome image forming apparatus.

[Configuration of image forming apparatus]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus 1 according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a main functional configuration of the image forming apparatus 1.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the image forming apparatus 1 includes an automatic document feeding unit 2, a scanner unit 3, an image forming unit 4, a paper feeding unit 5, a storage unit 6, an operation display unit 7, And a control unit 10.

The automatic document feeder 2 includes a loading tray on which the document D is placed, a mechanism for feeding the document D, a feeding roller, and the like, and feeds the document D to a predetermined feeding path.
The scanner unit 3 is configured to include an optical system such as a light source and a reflecting mirror, and irradiates the light source to the document D transported through a predetermined transport path or the document D placed on the platen glass to receive the reflected light. . The scanner unit 3 also converts the received reflected light into an electric signal and outputs the electric signal to the control unit 10.

  The image forming unit 4 includes a yellow image forming unit Y, a magenta image forming unit M, a cyan image forming unit C, a black image forming unit K, and a fixing device F.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the image forming unit 4.
As shown in FIG. 3, each image forming unit includes a drum-shaped photosensitive drum 41 (image carrier) that is driven to rotate in the direction a in the figure, and a charging unit that uniformly charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 41. A device 42, an exposure device 43 that exposes the surface of the photosensitive drum 41 charged by the charging device 42 to form an electrostatic latent image, and an electrostatic latent image formed by the exposure device 43 with toner. The developing device 44 that visualizes using a developer containing the toner, the transfer device 45 that transfers the toner image formed on the photoconductor drum 41 to the sheet, and the toner on the photoconductor drum 41 that has passed through the transfer area. And a cleaning device 46 for removing the toner image, and the toner image formed on the photoconductor drum 41 is primarily transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 451 which moves in the direction b in the drawing.
The toner image transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 451 is transferred to the recording material by the secondary transfer roller 48, and then conveyed to the fixing device F and fixed on the recording material.

  The photoconductor drum 41 has a rotation shaft and is rotatable by the rotation shaft. For example, a photosensitive layer made of resin containing an organic photoconductor is formed on the outer peripheral surface of a drum-shaped metal substrate. Examples of the resin that is made of an organic photoreceptor and that constitutes the photosensitive layer include polycarbonate resin, silicone resin, polystyrene resin, acrylic resin, methacrylic resin, epoxy resin, polyurethane resin, vinyl chloride resin, and melamine resin. The photosensitive drum 41 has a rotation shaft and is rotatable by the rotation shaft.

A corotron charger is used as the charging device 42, and the photosensitive drum 41 is charged to a constant potential. The charging roller is preferable in that the photosensitive drum 41 can be uniformly charged to a constant potential, but the charging device 42 may be a charging roller, a scorotron charger, or the like.
After charging by the charging device 42, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 41 by the exposure device 43 such as a laser.

The developing device 44 includes a developing sleeve 441 arranged so as to face the photosensitive drum 41 via a developing area. To the developing sleeve 441, for example, a DC developing bias having the same polarity as the charging polarity of the charging device 42 or a developing bias in which a DC voltage having the same polarity as the charging polarity of the charging device 42 is superimposed on an AC voltage is applied. Thus, reversal development is performed in which toner is attached to the electrostatic latent image formed by the exposure device 43.
The toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 41 by the developing device 44 is carried to the transfer device 45 formed between the toner image and the intermediate transfer belt 451. In the transfer device 45, a voltage having a polarity opposite to that of the toner is applied to the transfer roller 452, and the toner image on the photoconductor drum 41 is transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 451.

The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 41 without being transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 451 by the transfer device 45 is collected by the cleaning device 46.
The cleaning device 46 includes a brush roller 461, a solid lubricant 462, and a cleaning blade 463.

The brush roller 461 has brush bristles 461a made of, for example, polyester or nylon on the surface, and is installed so as to contact both the solid lubricant 462 and the photosensitive drum 41. The brush roller 461 has a rotation axis parallel to the rotation axis of the photoconductor drum 41, and at the contact point with the photoconductor drum 41, its surface travels in the same direction as the traveling direction of the surface of the photoconductor drum 41 (c Direction: with direction) rotate. At this time, the brush bristles 461a can rotate while abutting on the photoconductor drum 41 because the bristle tips are inclined to the upstream side with respect to the root in the traveling direction (direction c). . In addition, the brush bristles 461a may be preliminarily subjected to a slanting treatment in which the tip of the bristles is inclined to the upstream side in the traveling direction with respect to the root in order to stably realize the state of contacting with the photosensitive drum 41.
The brush roller 461 functions as a lubricant application brush that supplies the lubricant particles cut out from the solid lubricant 462 to the photosensitive drum 41 and spreads and applies the lubricant particles onto the photosensitive drum 41 by the contact pressure. The brush roller 461 also functions as a cleaning brush that removes the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 41.

  As the material of the solid lubricant 462, a material that can be applied to the surface of the photoconductor drum 41 and whose surface energy is reduced to reduce the adhesive force between the toner and the photoconductor drum 41 is selected. Examples include fatty acid metal salts and fluororesins, which may be used alone or in admixture of two or more. Particularly, a fatty acid metal salt is preferable. The fatty acid in the fatty acid metal salt is preferably a linear hydrocarbon, for example, myristic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, etc., and stearic acid is more preferable. Examples of the metal include lithium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, zinc, cadmium, aluminum, cerium, titanium and iron. Among these, zinc stearate, magnesium stearate, aluminum stearate, iron stearate and the like are preferable, and zinc stearate is particularly preferable. The above material is melted and shaped, or particles of the above material are compression-molded to be shaped into a shape that can be cut out by a brush roller 461, and used as a solid lubricant 462. In the present embodiment, zinc stearate is used as the solid lubricant 462.

A cleaning blade 463 is in contact with the photosensitive drum 41 on the downstream side of the brush roller 461 in the rotation direction a of the photosensitive drum 41. The cleaning blade 463 removes the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 41 without being collected by the brush roller 461. As the cleaning blade 463, for example, a flat blade made of an elastic material can be used.
As described above, the photosensitive drum 41 whose surface toner has been collected by the cleaning device 46 is charged again by the charging device 42, the next electrostatic latent image is formed, and the formation of a toner image is repeated.

  The paper feeding unit 5 is configured to include a plurality of paper feeding trays 51 to 53, and accommodates a plurality of different types of paper P in each of the paper feeding trays 51 to 53. The paper feeding unit 5 feeds the paper P, which is accommodated by a predetermined transport path, to the image forming unit 4.

  The storage unit 6 is configured by an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a semiconductor memory, or the like, and stores data such as program data and various setting data such as a program for executing a brush restoration operation described later so that the control unit 10 can read and write the data. To do.

The operation display unit 7 is composed of, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD) with a touch panel, and has a display unit 71 and an operation unit 72.
The display unit 71 displays various operation screens, operating conditions of each function, and the like according to a display control signal input from the control unit 10. In addition, the touch operation by the user is received and the operation signal is output to the control unit 10.
The operation unit 72 includes various operation keys such as a numeric keypad and a start key, receives various input operations by the user, and outputs operation signals to the control unit 10. A user can operate the operation display unit 7 to perform image forming settings such as image quality setting, magnification setting, application setting, output setting and paper setting, paper conveyance instruction, and operation of stopping the apparatus.

The control unit 10 is configured to include a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, and the like. The CPU expands various programs stored in the ROM into the RAM, and cooperates with the expanded programs to cooperate with the automatic document feeder 2, The operation of each unit of the image forming apparatus 1 such as the scanner unit 3, the image forming unit 4, the paper feeding unit 5, the storage unit 6, and the operation display unit 7 is comprehensively controlled (see FIG. 2). For example, the control unit 10 inputs an electric signal from the scanner unit 3 to perform various image processes, and outputs the image data Dy, Dm, Dc, and Dk of each color of YMCK generated by the image processing to the image forming unit 4. . The control unit 10 also controls the operation of the image forming unit 4 to form an image on a recording material.
The control unit 10 functions as a detection unit and an execution unit.

[Brush repair operation]
Hereinafter, the brush restoration operation (restoration operation) according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, when the bristle tips of the brush bristles 461a are tilted toward the upstream side in the traveling direction with respect to the root, the direction in which the brush bristles 461a are tilted is referred to as the bristle tilting direction. Further, when the brush bristles 461a are subjected to the bristling process, the direction in which the brush bristles 461a fall is referred to as the bristling process direction. Further, a state in which the bristle tips of the brush bristles 461a are tilted to the upstream side in the traveling direction and abut against the surface of the photoconductor drum 41 is referred to as an abdominal contact state.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a mechanism of occurrence of bristle cracking of the brush bristles 461a and a repairing operation thereof.
As shown in FIG. 4A, during image formation, the relationship between the peripheral speed V1 of the surface of the photosensitive drum 41 and the peripheral speed V2 of the surface of the brush bristles 461a is controlled so that V1 <V2. There is. At this time, a load due to friction is applied to the brush bristles 461a in a direction opposite to the traveling direction of the surface of the brush roller 461, that is, in the same direction as the bristling direction (or the bristling process direction when the bristles are processed). Since it is applied, the brush bristles 461a can rotate while maintaining the abdominal contact state.

However, as shown in FIG. 4B, there is a case where V1> V2 at the end of the image forming operation.
FIG. 5 shows a timing chart of driving of the respective parts constituting the image forming section 4. The photosensitive drum 41 and the brush roller 461 are both rotated before the start of the image forming operation and during the image forming operation, but at the end of the image forming operation, the variation of the durability of the brush roller 461 is suppressed and only a part of the photosensitive drum 41 is formed. In order to prevent excessive application of the lubricant, the rotation of the brush roller 461 is stopped before the photoconductor drum 41. At this time, V1> V2. When V1> V2, as shown in FIG. 4 (B), the brush bristles 461a are in the same direction as the traveling direction of the surface of the brush roller 461, that is, in the bristling direction (when the bristles are treated, A load due to friction is applied in a direction opposite to the direction of the slanted hair, and only the portion in contact with the photoconductor drum 41 falls down in the direction of hair bristling or in the direction opposite the direction of slanted hair. The boundary between the portion of the brush bristles 461a that collapses in the opposite direction and the portion that collapses in the bristling direction or the slanted bristling direction is a crack in which the brush bristles 461a collapse in the opposite direction in the circumferential direction of the brush roller 461. It becomes a state. When the portion where the bristles occur is located at a position facing the photoconductor drum 41, the brush bristles 461a contacting the surface of the photoconductor drum 41 do not exist.

  In such a state where bristles are generated, when the brush roller 461 functions as a cleaning brush, cleaning of the photosensitive drum 41 is partially insufficient due to bristles, so that image defects such as image streaks occur. Further, when the brush roller 461 functions as a lubricant application brush, the amount of lubricant applied is partially insufficient due to hair cracking, so that image density unevenness and image streaks become apparent.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, in order to eliminate the bristle cracking state, the following brush restoration operation is executed.
Specifically, the brush restoration operation is, as shown in FIG. 4 (C), rotating the brush roller 461 in the same direction as that at the time of image formation (direction c in the figure), or only the photoconductor drum 41 is imaged. By rotating the brush bristles 461a in the direction opposite to that at the time of formation (the direction opposite to a in the figure), a frictional load is applied to the brush bristles 461a in the same direction as the bristling direction or the bristling direction.

Here, the rotation amount when only the brush roller 461 is rotated will be described.
When only the brush roller 461 is rotated, the lubricant is excessively applied to the same portion of the photoconductor drum 41. Therefore, at the time of the next image formation, the image density of the portion to which the lubricant is excessively applied is particularly large in the halftone portion. Higher density unevenness occurs. Therefore, it is necessary to set the rotation amount of the brush roller 461 within a range that does not affect the image quality.
FIG. 6 shows a result of examination by the inventor of the relationship between the rotation amount of the brush roller 461 and the influence on the image quality. When the halftone density unevenness (color difference: ΔE) is less than 3.0, the density unevenness does not affect the image quality. As shown in FIG. 6, when the rotation amount is 3 rotations or less, ΔE <3.0 is satisfied. However, even if the rotation amount is 1 rotation, hair cracks are eliminated, so in this case, 1 rotation is more preferable. .

  Next, the operation of the image forming apparatus 1 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 7 and 8. The processes in FIGS. 7 and 8 are realized by the cooperation of the control unit 10 and the programs stored in the storage unit 6.

  First, the control unit 10 functions as a detection unit and determines whether or not V1> V2 (step S11). When the control unit 10 determines that V1> V2, that is, a load due to friction is applied to the surface of the brush roller 461 due to the difference in peripheral speed, and bristles are generated (step S11: YES), the process proceeds to step S12. However, if it is determined that V1> V2 is not satisfied (step S11: NO), the control ends.

  In step S12, the control unit 10 determines whether or not V1 = 0. When the control unit 10 determines that V1 = 0, that is, the photosensitive drum 41 has stopped rotating (step S12: YES), the control unit 10 proceeds to step S13, but determines that V1 = 0 is not satisfied (step S12: NO), the process of step S12 is repeated. Here, if the process moves to step S13 while the rotation of the photosensitive drum 41 is not stopped, it is necessary to make the rotation speed of the brush roller 461 higher than that of the photosensitive drum 41 in the brush restoration operation described later. Is too much. Therefore, in step S12, the process proceeds to step S13 only when V1 = 0.

In step S13, the control unit 10 functions as an execution unit and executes a brush restoration operation. The brush restoration operation in step S13 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
First, the control unit 10 starts the rotation of the brush roller 461 (step S131). Subsequently, the control unit 10 determines whether or not the brush roller 461 has rotated by a predetermined amount (step S132). Here, the predetermined amount is a rotation amount that is assumed not to affect the image quality even if only the brush roller 461 is rotated as described above, and is set in advance and stored in the storage unit 6. . When the controller 10 determines that the brush roller 461 has rotated by the predetermined amount (step S132: YES), the rotation of the brush roller 461 is stopped (step S133), and the brush restoration operation ends, but it is determined that the brush roller 461 does not rotate by the predetermined amount (step S133). Step S132: NO), and the process of step S133 is repeated.
When the brush restoration operation is completed as described above, the control ends.

  As described above, the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes the photoconductor drum 41 that carries the toner image that is rotated by the rotation shaft and transferred to the sheet, and the rotation shaft that is parallel to the rotation shaft of the photoconductor drum 41. A brush roller 461 that rotates while contacting the photoconductor drum 41 during image formation, and that supplies a lubricant to the photoconductor drum 41 and / or cleans and removes toner on the photoconductor drum 41; A detection unit that detects a load applied to the surface of the roller 461 and, when it is detected that a load due to friction in the traveling direction is applied to the surface of the brush roller 461, a restoration operation in the hair collapse direction of the brush roller 461 is executed. A control unit 10 that functions as an execution unit is provided. Therefore, according to the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, it is possible to prevent image noise and the like by detecting the hair collapse state caused by the rotational load on the brush roller and performing the restoration operation. .

  Further, when the brush roller 461 has been subjected to the bristling process in advance, it is possible to effectively perform the lubricant application and the cleaning by returning to the state in which the bristling process is performed by the restoration operation.

  Further, in the repair operation, the brush roller 461 is rotated in the reverse direction of the image formation or the photosensitive drum 41 is rotated in the same direction as the image formation. That is, since it can be repaired only by rotating these members, it is more economical than newly providing a mechanism for repairing the collapsed state of the bristles of the brush.

  Although the brush roller 461 is rotated as the restoration operation in the flowchart of FIG. 8, when the photoconductor drum 41 is rotated in the opposite direction to the image formation, the rotation amount of the photoconductor drum 41 is preset. It is set, and the rotation of the photosensitive drum 41 may be stopped after rotating the set rotation amount.

  Further, in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, when the peripheral speed of the photoconductor drum 41 is higher than the peripheral speed of the brush roller 461, it is detected that a load in the traveling direction is applied to the surface of the brush roller. . That is, it is possible to appropriately detect bristle cracks due to the rotation load applied to the brush roller 461.

<Second Embodiment>
A second embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The same components as those in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

  The image forming apparatus 1 according to the second embodiment is characterized by determining whether or not to carry out the brush restoration operation at the end of image formation, based on the usage status of the image forming apparatus 1. That is, when the image forming operation is not performed next time, the brush restoration operation is not performed, so that the waiting time of the user can be reduced.

  Next, the operation of the image forming apparatus 1 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The processing in FIG. 9 is realized by the cooperation of the control unit 10 and the program stored in the storage unit 6.

  First, the control unit 10 determines whether or not V1> V2 (step S21), and when determining that V1> V2 (step S21: YES), the process proceeds to step S22, but not V1> V2. If so (step S21: NO), the control ends.

  Subsequently, the control unit 10 functions as an execution unit and determines whether or not there is a reservation for the next image forming operation (step S22). When determining that there is a reservation (step S22: YES), the control unit 10 suspends execution of the repair operation and proceeds to step S23, but when determining that there is no reservation (step S22: NO), proceeds to step S26. To do.

  In step S23, the control unit 10 functions as an execution unit and determines whether or not the next image forming operation is started. If the control unit 10 determines that it has started (step S23: YES), it ends the control, but if it determines that it has not started (step S23: NO), it proceeds to step S24.

  In step S24, the control unit 10 functions as an execution unit and determines whether the reservation for the next image forming operation has been canceled. When the control unit 10 determines that the reservation has been canceled (step S24: YES), the control unit 10 proceeds to step S25, and when determining that the reservation has not been canceled (step S24: NO), returns to step S23 and repeats the above processing.

In step S25, the control unit 10 determines whether or not V1 = 0, determines that V1 = 0 (step S25: YES), moves to step S26, and determines that V1 = 0 is not satisfied ( (Step S25: NO), the process of step S25 is repeated.
In step S26, a brush restoration operation is executed. The processing in the brush repairing operation follows the flowchart of FIG.

  As described above, when the next image forming operation is reserved, the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment determines to suspend the execution of the repair operation, and reserves the next image forming operation. If not, the repair operation is determined to be executed. That is, when the next image forming operation is reserved, the image forming operation is preferentially executed, so that the waiting time of the user can be reduced.

  Further, when the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment determines to suspend the execution of the repair operation, when the next image forming operation is started, it is determined that the repair operation is not executed, and the next image When the reservation of the forming operation is canceled, it is determined that the repair operation is executed. That is, even if the restoration operation is suspended, if the next image forming operation is not performed, the bristling state of the brush is eliminated to prepare for the next image forming operation. A repair operation can be performed.

[Other Embodiments]
Although the specific description has been given based on the embodiment according to the present invention, the above embodiment is a preferable example of the present invention and is not limited to this.

  In the above embodiment, the load applied to the surface of the brush roller 461 is detected in the direction in which the load is applied, and the restoration operation is executed. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the magnitude of the load is also detected. It may be one. That is, even if a load is applied in the same direction as the traveling direction of the surface of the brush roller 461, bristles may not occur if the load is small. Therefore, it is efficient to execute the repairing operation only when a load of a predetermined value or more, which is considered to cause hair cracking, is applied.

  Further, in the above description, an example in which a non-volatile memory, a hard disk or the like is used as a computer-readable medium of the program according to the present invention is disclosed, but the invention is not limited to this example. As another computer-readable medium, a portable recording medium such as a CD-ROM can be applied. Further, a carrier wave is also applied as a medium for providing the data of the program according to the present invention via a communication line.

  In addition, the detailed configuration of each device forming the image forming apparatus and the detailed operation of each device can be appropriately changed without departing from the scope of the present invention.

1 Image Forming Apparatus 2 Automatic Document Feeding Section 3 Scanner Section 4 Image Forming Section 41 Photosensitive Drum (Image Carrier)
42 Charging device 43 Exposure device 44 Developing device 45 Transfer device 46 Cleaning device 461 Brush roller 461a Brush bristles 462 Solid lubricant 463 Cleaning blade 5 Paper feeding unit 6 Storage unit 7 Operation display unit 71 Display unit 72 Operation unit 10 Control unit (Detection unit) , Execution section)

Claims (9)

An image carrier that carries a toner image that is rotated by a rotating shaft and transferred to a sheet,
It has a rotation axis parallel to the rotation axis of the image carrier, rotates while contacting the image carrier at the time of image formation, and supplies lubricant to the image carrier and / or on the image carrier. A brush roller for cleaning and removing toner,
A detection unit that detects the load applied to the surface of the brush roller,
An execution unit that executes a repairing operation in the hair collapse direction of the brush roller when the detection unit detects that a load is applied to the surface of the brush roller in the traveling direction of the surface. A characteristic image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the brush roller is preliminarily subjected to a slanting treatment in which a bristle tip is inclined with respect to a root toward an upstream side in a traveling direction of a surface of the brush roller. The said execution part rotates the said brush roller in the same direction as the time of the said image formation in the state which stopped the rotation of the said image carrier as the said repair operation. Image forming apparatus. The execution unit rotates the image carrier in a direction opposite to that when the image is formed in a state where the rotation of the brush roller is stopped, as the repair operation. Image forming apparatus. The detecting unit detects that a load in the traveling direction is applied to the surface of the brush roller when the peripheral speed of the image carrier is higher than the peripheral speed of the brush roller. The image forming apparatus according to any one of 1 to 4. Whether the execution unit executes the restoration operation according to the usage status of the image forming apparatus, when the detection unit detects that the surface of the brush roller has a load in the traveling direction. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus determines whether or not the image forming apparatus. The execution unit determines to suspend the execution of the restoration operation when the next image forming operation is reserved, and executes the restoration operation when the next image forming operation is not reserved. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image forming apparatus judges. When the execution unit determines to suspend the execution of the restoration operation, when the next image forming operation is started, the execution unit determines not to execute the restoration operation, and the reservation for the next image forming operation is canceled. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the image forming apparatus determines that the repair operation is to be executed when the image forming apparatus has been damaged. An image carrier that carries a toner image that is rotated by a rotary shaft and transferred to a sheet, and a rotary shaft that is parallel to the rotary shaft of the image carrier, and rotate while contacting the image carrier during image formation. A brush roller that supplies a lubricant to the image carrier and / or cleans and removes toner on the image carrier, and a computer of an image forming apparatus,
A detection unit that detects the load applied to the surface of the brush roller,
When the detection unit detects that a load is applied to the surface of the brush roller in the advancing direction of the surface, an execution unit that executes a repairing operation in the hair collapse direction of the brush roller, program.

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